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Published: October 2nd 2008
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The move by public bus was an altogether better experience to travel around Cambodia. the bags were stored in the underfloor spaces and not above our heads. We had allocated seats as well so there is no overcrowding or chickens! The drivers are OK as well, apart from the non stop use of the horn to drive other motorists / cyclists and livestock off the roads to give us a clear route. The overtaking on bends is also a key feature of driving in Cambodia which kept the group on edge. Clearly the best thing was to sleep through the experience as best you can and listen to the IPod which was not an option for us as we still have not replaced ours after the sea water incident in the Cook Islands. Another alternative to pass the time time was to watch the DVD of slapstick Cambodian comedy which brought a large amount of laughing from the locals on the bus and looks of amazement from the "Westerners". Each to their own really.
The move to Kompong Cham was little more than a stopover before we visited our homestay residence in Cambok area. The hotel was good and overlooked the
Mekong river which is very wide and fast flowing at this time of year. We had the afternoon to explore the area so we all hired bikes and took a ferry crossing across to an island where we could see how the real Cambodians lived. We were advised to take over sometinhg for the children on the island as they get very excited about Westerners, so a few balloons were purchased for distribution, these were strategically placed in the basket that was on the front of bike for easy distribution. A bit of advice for the future is that when cycling past these children that are shouting, waving and screaming it is not advised to stop as they can quickly overwhelm a unsuspecting cyclist and take all the balloons in the blink of an eye. Carolyn was jumped upon by a group of under 8 year olds. Gary took a slightly more robust approach and just slapped hands with individuals, passing out the occasional balloon, but keeping up enough pace to get away if the situation arose. This run away approach has served Gary well over the years. After stopping for numerous grapefruits at a local residence and with the
younger members of our group playing skipping and tag with the local children we returned to the mainland on the "ferry". ( A wooden platform between two boats). A spectacular sunset was seen on the return and as usual the rain clouds descended on us. The following day had us move to Phnom Penh where we had lunch and changed buses (back to the small luggage bouncing variety) to take us to our homestay part of the trip. This is basically where we kick out a family from their house in exchange for biscuits (and we would imagine, some cash), kip down for the night under a mosquito net and see how a family lives in a small farming community. Nobody really knew what to expect, but we were split into two groups by sex (sounds painful) and shown to our bit of floor in our respective houses. It really was floor for the girls as they had no mattresses where as the boys had thin mattresses, but the downside for Gary (or upside for the other guys) was that there was not enough room for all to sleep inside so Gary had to sleep outside on the balcony.
The
group half expected to be sitting with the family enjoying the simplicity of life, but in reality we ate as a group, away from the family, drank some beer and played games. When this was done we went to bed. The only real interaction with the Cambodian farming community was when the roosters chirped in at 5 am followed swiftly by the tractor starting up, the obligatory scooters moving about, cows mooing and the rice splitting machine being used. Everything starts early in the country!!
To be honest any interaction we could have had with the family would have been limited as the language barrier would always be a problem. In the morning we again entertained the children for a short while whilst elder family members looked on. We passed over the tin of biscuits, bade farewell and left to move to Sihanoukville on the coast, with the family looking somewhat relieved.
Sihanoukville was whole different experience. A seaside town with great beaches and some hardselling street children. Carolyn could not resist a hairband and a manicure. Gary resisted this temptation for obvious reasons on the hair front and because the nail varnish they were offering did not match his
eye colour.
This was to be place to chill for the three nights we were here, the beaches were fantastic and the sea very warm. The only downside was that the planned boat trip to outer islands with snorkelling and swimming had to be cancelled as the wind was very strong producing very large waves. This brought tears to the eye of the tour operator who did not like to give money back in any circumstance.
4 of us went on a little tour ourselves which encompassed a fishing village, a secluded beach, a waterfall and finally a sunset from an elevated position. The fishing village was in fact a pier in the harbour surrounded by huges amount of litter (this is a massive problem throughout Cambodia). The fishing village had pretty much closed down for the day as we arrived too late, not to worry the trip was still in its early stages.
The taxi we had was struggling up the hills with 5 people in it and at one point the air con had to be switched off otherwise we would have ground to a halt. We were still upbeat though and the secluded beach was great and
a good place to avoid the hassle of the beach sellers. We took lunch here and then moved to the waterfall which again was a good and an obvious place for the locals to go to at the weekend. It was packed with hammock bars and places to cook as a family. It was quiet when we arrived, due to the day of the week, but we could still chill and have a small (warm) beer.
The final part of the day was a sunset, which we arrived at about 90 mins too early, which again was spectacular.
Our final day here was pretty much a washout due to heavy rain and stronger winds, but we had the opportunity to hire out a whole cinema at $8 an hour to watch whatever film we wanted to. It was a groovy place to hang out in airconditioned luxury on sofas and scatter cushions. The only problem was what film to watch as they had a choice of 700 and there was 11 of us going, it could potentially take days to decide. In the end it was simple - it had to be the "The Killing Fields" as we were off
The Man House at the homestay
Gary's masculine pink mosquito net is a key feature. to Phnom Penh the following day to genocide museum although in hindsight it was not the most cheery of options
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